Swell Swine(subscription)
North Carolina's global-warming activists are in hog heaven. Late last month, Gov. Mike Easley, a Democrat in his second term, signed legislation mandating that more electric power in his state come from "green" sources such as wind, solar energy, and hog and chicken waste. Today, North Carolina gets about 2% of its electricity from "renewable resources." By 2021, under the new mandates, Progress Energy and Duke Energy will have to find 12.5% of the power that they sell to Tar Heel residents from renewables. Hog-waste-generated power -- as required by the new law -- will nearly triple to 0.2% of the electricity used in the state over the next decade as farmers capture and sell the methane gas given off from tons of decomposing manure. It's gone largely uncovered outside the state, but there is an energy revolution underway in the Tar Heel State that will cost residents more for the energy they use in the name of cutting greenhouse gases. Even while they make little headway in Congress, advocates of heavy-handed regulations to head off global warming are working to enact laws on the state level. They're succeeding in North Carolina. The immediate cost to consumers will be higher electric bills. For residential customers, an annual fee will eventually reach $34, and for industry the annual fee will grow to as much as $1,000. The new hog mandate is only the beginning. The state has set up a special commission -- the Climate Action Plan Advisory Group -- to study ways to cut CO2 emissions. It's already adopted a list of 53 recommended new mandates and is drafting a report for the state legislature. A few ideas the commission will recommend in its report next month include mandates for "higher-density" housing developments, something thought to reduce suburban "sprawl," and, of course, new subsidies for farmers to produce biodiesel. It will also recommend imposing new costs on the driving public. One thought is to force drivers who put more miles on their odometer to pay higher car-insurance premiums than those who drive less. And it will recommend a CO2 tax or a cap-and-trade system, assuming such a system could be worked out on a state level. These ideas don't come out of thin air. They are in part the product of a five-year effort by the Center for Climate Strategies -- a global warming group funded by several well-known foundations -- that first got active in North Carolina under the auspices of a law enacted in 2002 aimed at reducing emissions from coal-fired power plants. Under that law, the state's Division of Air Quality was required to study ways to reduce CO2 emissions. That mandate led to the creation of the special commission that will soon hand over its list of recommended new mandates to the legislature. To conduct its studies, the Division of Air Quality turned to the Center for Climate Strategies....
Saturday, September 29, 2007
Friday, September 28, 2007
Report touts nature over energy
he Rocky Mountains' natural amenities are more important to the regional economy than the booming oil and gas industry, according to a new report compiled by an environmental group and supported by some regional economists. The report released by The Wilderness Society Thursday says the oil and gas industry accounts for less than 2 percent of the region's total personal income. Parts of the economy dependent on the quality of natural surroundings -- recreation, tourism, influx of retirees -- have become more important, it says. "The Marlboro cowboy economy is a consistent myth," Walter Hecox, an economics professor at Colorado College in Colorado Springs, said in a teleconference. Income from investments and retirees makes up nearly a quarter of the region's economy, according to the report "Natural Dividends: Wildland Protection and the Changing Economy of the Rocky Mountain West." Recreation and tourism generate hundreds of millions of dollars, it says. The report covered Colorado, Idaho, Montana, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming....Go here to view the report.
he Rocky Mountains' natural amenities are more important to the regional economy than the booming oil and gas industry, according to a new report compiled by an environmental group and supported by some regional economists. The report released by The Wilderness Society Thursday says the oil and gas industry accounts for less than 2 percent of the region's total personal income. Parts of the economy dependent on the quality of natural surroundings -- recreation, tourism, influx of retirees -- have become more important, it says. "The Marlboro cowboy economy is a consistent myth," Walter Hecox, an economics professor at Colorado College in Colorado Springs, said in a teleconference. Income from investments and retirees makes up nearly a quarter of the region's economy, according to the report "Natural Dividends: Wildland Protection and the Changing Economy of the Rocky Mountain West." Recreation and tourism generate hundreds of millions of dollars, it says. The report covered Colorado, Idaho, Montana, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming....Go here to view the report.
Environmental Radical Guilty in Calif.
A federal jury found a 29-year-old environmental activist guilty Thursday of conspiring to burn down or blow up a northern California dam, a genetics lab, cell phone towers and other targets. McDavid and two others were arrested in January 2006 after buying bottles of bleach, a car battery, potassium chloride and other items prosecutors said were being used to build plastic explosives. The Nimbus Dam on the American River near Sacramento and the U.S. Forest Service's Institute of Forest Genetics in Placerville, in the foothills east of Sacramento, were among the suspected targets. McDavid's two co-defendants pleaded guilty last year and testified against McDavid. Jurors listened to them and testimony from an FBI informant before deliberating for 11 hours and returning the guilty verdict....
A federal jury found a 29-year-old environmental activist guilty Thursday of conspiring to burn down or blow up a northern California dam, a genetics lab, cell phone towers and other targets. McDavid and two others were arrested in January 2006 after buying bottles of bleach, a car battery, potassium chloride and other items prosecutors said were being used to build plastic explosives. The Nimbus Dam on the American River near Sacramento and the U.S. Forest Service's Institute of Forest Genetics in Placerville, in the foothills east of Sacramento, were among the suspected targets. McDavid's two co-defendants pleaded guilty last year and testified against McDavid. Jurors listened to them and testimony from an FBI informant before deliberating for 11 hours and returning the guilty verdict....
GAO
Prairie Pothole Region: At the Current Pace of Acquisitions, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Is Unlikely to Achieve Its Habitat Protection Goals for Migratory Birds. GAO-07-1093, September 27.
http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-07-1093
Highlights - http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d071093high.pdf
Chemical Regulation: Comparison of U.S. and Recently Enacted European Union Approaches to Protect against the Risks of Toxic Chemicals. GAO-07-825, August 17.
http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-07-825
Highlights - http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d07825high.pdf
Prairie Pothole Region: At the Current Pace of Acquisitions, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Is Unlikely to Achieve Its Habitat Protection Goals for Migratory Birds. GAO-07-1093, September 27.
http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-07-1093
Highlights - http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d071093high.pdf
Chemical Regulation: Comparison of U.S. and Recently Enacted European Union Approaches to Protect against the Risks of Toxic Chemicals. GAO-07-825, August 17.
http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-07-825
Highlights - http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d07825high.pdf
Bush Outlines Proposal on Climate Change
Seeking to dispel the widespread impression that his administration is isolated on the issue of global warming, President Bush said today that the world’s biggest polluters can limit damage to the atmosphere while still promoting prosperity. “Our guiding principle is clear,” the president said at a conference on climate change and energy security. “We must lead the world to produce fewer greenhouse gas emissions, and we must do it in a way that does not undermine economic growth or prevent nations from delivering greater prosperity for their people.” Mr. Bush proposed the creation of an “international clean technology fund,” to be supported by contributions from governments around the world, that would help finance clean-energy projects in developing countries. The president said Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. would lead discussions with other countries on starting that fund. “No one country has all the answers, including mine,” Mr. Bush said. “The best way to tackle this problem is to think creatively and to learn from others’ experiences and to come together on a way to achieve the objectives we share. Together, our nations will pave the way for a new international approach on greenhouse emissions.” The White House pulled out all stops today to reinforce the message that, as Mr. Bush put it, the United States will be “good stewards of the environment” while also meeting ever-increasing energy needs. A White House “fact sheet” declared, for instance, that the United States has invested more than $2.5 billion in clean-coal technology since 2001, and that the administration is committed to helping to build more nuclear power plants without compromising safety. On Thursday, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice acknowledged that climate change was a real global problem, and that the United States was a major contributor. She said the United States was willing to lead the international effort to reduce emissions of gases that had led to the warming of the planet, with the attendant ill effects. But she repeated President Bush’s insistence that the solution could not starve emerging economies of fuel or slow the growth of the advanced nations. “Every country will make its own decisions,” she said, “reflecting its own needs and interests.”....
Seeking to dispel the widespread impression that his administration is isolated on the issue of global warming, President Bush said today that the world’s biggest polluters can limit damage to the atmosphere while still promoting prosperity. “Our guiding principle is clear,” the president said at a conference on climate change and energy security. “We must lead the world to produce fewer greenhouse gas emissions, and we must do it in a way that does not undermine economic growth or prevent nations from delivering greater prosperity for their people.” Mr. Bush proposed the creation of an “international clean technology fund,” to be supported by contributions from governments around the world, that would help finance clean-energy projects in developing countries. The president said Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. would lead discussions with other countries on starting that fund. “No one country has all the answers, including mine,” Mr. Bush said. “The best way to tackle this problem is to think creatively and to learn from others’ experiences and to come together on a way to achieve the objectives we share. Together, our nations will pave the way for a new international approach on greenhouse emissions.” The White House pulled out all stops today to reinforce the message that, as Mr. Bush put it, the United States will be “good stewards of the environment” while also meeting ever-increasing energy needs. A White House “fact sheet” declared, for instance, that the United States has invested more than $2.5 billion in clean-coal technology since 2001, and that the administration is committed to helping to build more nuclear power plants without compromising safety. On Thursday, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice acknowledged that climate change was a real global problem, and that the United States was a major contributor. She said the United States was willing to lead the international effort to reduce emissions of gases that had led to the warming of the planet, with the attendant ill effects. But she repeated President Bush’s insistence that the solution could not starve emerging economies of fuel or slow the growth of the advanced nations. “Every country will make its own decisions,” she said, “reflecting its own needs and interests.”....
Bluetongue declared an outbreak
A protection zone has been set up in Suffolk after government vets confirmed bluetongue disease was circulating in the UK and was classed as an outbreak. Deputy chief vet Fred Landeg said test results had shown the disease, which is transmitted by biting midges, was passing between livestock. So far there have been five confirmed cases of the disease. All the animals which tested positive have been culled. The zone will be a minimum of 150km (93 miles) around infected premises. A stricter 20km control zone has also been set up around the known bluetongue cases, with restrictions preventing animals being moved out of both zones. Mr Landeg told a news conference that laboratory results and the number of cases of bluetongue in Suffolk indicated the disease was circulating in the animal and the midge populations in the county. He said it had probably entered the country through midges from northern Europe. There have been nearly 3,000 cases of bluetongue in the region - including the Netherlands, Belgium, France and Germany - since July, which had fuelled fears of its arrival in the UK....
A protection zone has been set up in Suffolk after government vets confirmed bluetongue disease was circulating in the UK and was classed as an outbreak. Deputy chief vet Fred Landeg said test results had shown the disease, which is transmitted by biting midges, was passing between livestock. So far there have been five confirmed cases of the disease. All the animals which tested positive have been culled. The zone will be a minimum of 150km (93 miles) around infected premises. A stricter 20km control zone has also been set up around the known bluetongue cases, with restrictions preventing animals being moved out of both zones. Mr Landeg told a news conference that laboratory results and the number of cases of bluetongue in Suffolk indicated the disease was circulating in the animal and the midge populations in the county. He said it had probably entered the country through midges from northern Europe. There have been nearly 3,000 cases of bluetongue in the region - including the Netherlands, Belgium, France and Germany - since July, which had fuelled fears of its arrival in the UK....
FLE
Art or Bioterrorism: Who Cares?
On May 11, 2004, 911 received a call from SUNY Buffalo University professor and artist Steve Kurtz reporting the death of Kurtz's wife Hope from heart failure. The responders entered the home where Kurtz worked on his projects for Critical Arts Ensemble (CAE) — projects which explore and critique bio-issues like our contemporary use of biotechnology for weapons programs, reproduction, and food. The responders noted a table with scientific equipment and peculiar substances that are an essential part of Kurtz' work. The FBI detained and questioned Kurtz for 22 hours. His house — and his wife's body — were confiscated. Kurtz' entire street was quarantined while agents from numerous agencies, including Homeland Security and the Department of Defense, descended on his home in hazmat suits. Everything was confiscated – computers, books on bioweaponry, garbage, posters with "suspicious" Arabic lettering on them… everything. After about two days, the authorities had tested the biological materials and declared that no toxic material had been found. On May 17, Kurtz was allowed to return to his home. So did the authorities apologize to the grieving professor before busying themselves with pursuing real crimes and threats? Not on your life! Despite the Public Health Commissioner's conclusions about the safety of Kurtz's materials, and despite the FBI's own field and laboratory tests showing they weren't harmful to people or the environment, the Justice Department still sought charges under the U.S. Biological Weapons Anti-Terrorism Act of 1989, as expanded by the USA PATRIOT Act — Prohibitions With Respect to Biological Weapons. A federal grand jury rejected the charges, but instead handed down indictments with two counts each for "mail fraud" and "wire fraud." According to the CAE, the charges "concern technicalities" about how Kurtz obtained "$256 worth of harmless bacteria for one of CAE's art projects." (Robert Ferrell, former head of the Department of Genetics at the University of Pittsburgh's School of Public Health, and a collaborator on several of CAE’s projects, now facing charges along with Kurtz) In this interview, Kurtz characterizes the charges even more bluntly. "The Department of Justice can drop a major felony on someone for filling out a warranty card incorrectly and mailing it."....
Art or Bioterrorism: Who Cares?
On May 11, 2004, 911 received a call from SUNY Buffalo University professor and artist Steve Kurtz reporting the death of Kurtz's wife Hope from heart failure. The responders entered the home where Kurtz worked on his projects for Critical Arts Ensemble (CAE) — projects which explore and critique bio-issues like our contemporary use of biotechnology for weapons programs, reproduction, and food. The responders noted a table with scientific equipment and peculiar substances that are an essential part of Kurtz' work. The FBI detained and questioned Kurtz for 22 hours. His house — and his wife's body — were confiscated. Kurtz' entire street was quarantined while agents from numerous agencies, including Homeland Security and the Department of Defense, descended on his home in hazmat suits. Everything was confiscated – computers, books on bioweaponry, garbage, posters with "suspicious" Arabic lettering on them… everything. After about two days, the authorities had tested the biological materials and declared that no toxic material had been found. On May 17, Kurtz was allowed to return to his home. So did the authorities apologize to the grieving professor before busying themselves with pursuing real crimes and threats? Not on your life! Despite the Public Health Commissioner's conclusions about the safety of Kurtz's materials, and despite the FBI's own field and laboratory tests showing they weren't harmful to people or the environment, the Justice Department still sought charges under the U.S. Biological Weapons Anti-Terrorism Act of 1989, as expanded by the USA PATRIOT Act — Prohibitions With Respect to Biological Weapons. A federal grand jury rejected the charges, but instead handed down indictments with two counts each for "mail fraud" and "wire fraud." According to the CAE, the charges "concern technicalities" about how Kurtz obtained "$256 worth of harmless bacteria for one of CAE's art projects." (Robert Ferrell, former head of the Department of Genetics at the University of Pittsburgh's School of Public Health, and a collaborator on several of CAE’s projects, now facing charges along with Kurtz) In this interview, Kurtz characterizes the charges even more bluntly. "The Department of Justice can drop a major felony on someone for filling out a warranty card incorrectly and mailing it."....
Thursday, September 27, 2007
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
FLE
The D.C. Gun Ban: Supreme Court Preview
On September 4, the District of Columbia government asked the Supreme Court to reverse a federal appellate decision in Parker v. District of Columbia, 478 F.3d 370 (D.C. Cir. 2007), which upheld a Second Amendment challenge to D.C.'s ban on all functional firearms. The six D.C. residents who brought the lawsuit — although they won in the lower court — agree with the city that the Supreme Court should revisit the Second Amendment for the first time since 1939. A four-square pronouncement from the High Court is long overdue. The entire nation, not just Washington, D.C., needs to know how courts will interpret "the right of the people to keep and bear arms." Sometime before yearend, the justices will decide whether to review the case. If the Supreme Court chooses to intervene, a final decision will probably be issued by June 30, 2008. D.C. Mayor Adrian M. Fenty and attorney general Linda Singer, in their petition to the Supreme Court and in a Washington Post op-ed ("Fighting for Our Handgun Ban," September 4), raise four arguments in support of the city's ban. Their first argument is that the Second Amendment ensures only that members of state militias are properly armed, not that private citizens can have guns for self-defense and other personal uses. That contentious question has been debated at length on these pages. See Dennis Henigan, "The Mythic Second," March 26, 2007; and Robert A. Levy, "Thanks to the Second Amendment," April 16, 2007. The city's remaining three arguments — two legal claims and one policy claim — have received comparatively less attention. First, declares the mayor, even if the Second Amendment protects private ownership of firearms for non-militia purposes, a ban on all handguns is reasonable because D.C. allows possession of rifles and shotguns in the home. Second, the Amendment restricts the actions of the federal government, but not the states, and D.C. should be treated the same as a state for Second Amendment purposes. And third, "handgun bans work"; the streets of the Nation's Capital are safer as a result. Let's consider each argument in turn....
The D.C. Gun Ban: Supreme Court Preview
On September 4, the District of Columbia government asked the Supreme Court to reverse a federal appellate decision in Parker v. District of Columbia, 478 F.3d 370 (D.C. Cir. 2007), which upheld a Second Amendment challenge to D.C.'s ban on all functional firearms. The six D.C. residents who brought the lawsuit — although they won in the lower court — agree with the city that the Supreme Court should revisit the Second Amendment for the first time since 1939. A four-square pronouncement from the High Court is long overdue. The entire nation, not just Washington, D.C., needs to know how courts will interpret "the right of the people to keep and bear arms." Sometime before yearend, the justices will decide whether to review the case. If the Supreme Court chooses to intervene, a final decision will probably be issued by June 30, 2008. D.C. Mayor Adrian M. Fenty and attorney general Linda Singer, in their petition to the Supreme Court and in a Washington Post op-ed ("Fighting for Our Handgun Ban," September 4), raise four arguments in support of the city's ban. Their first argument is that the Second Amendment ensures only that members of state militias are properly armed, not that private citizens can have guns for self-defense and other personal uses. That contentious question has been debated at length on these pages. See Dennis Henigan, "The Mythic Second," March 26, 2007; and Robert A. Levy, "Thanks to the Second Amendment," April 16, 2007. The city's remaining three arguments — two legal claims and one policy claim — have received comparatively less attention. First, declares the mayor, even if the Second Amendment protects private ownership of firearms for non-militia purposes, a ban on all handguns is reasonable because D.C. allows possession of rifles and shotguns in the home. Second, the Amendment restricts the actions of the federal government, but not the states, and D.C. should be treated the same as a state for Second Amendment purposes. And third, "handgun bans work"; the streets of the Nation's Capital are safer as a result. Let's consider each argument in turn....
Global Warming "Is Good And Is Not Our Fault"
Global warming is an entirely natural phenomenon and its effects can even be beneficial, according to two leading researchers. Recent climate change is not caused by man-made pollution, but is instead part of a 1,500-year cycle of warming and cooling that has happened for the last million years, say the authors of a controversial study. Dennis Avery, an environmental economist, and Professor Fred Singer, a physicist, have looked at the work of more than 500 scientists and concluded that it is very doubtful that man-made global warming exists. They also say that temperature increase is actually a good thing as in the past sudden cool periods have killed twice as many people as warm spells....Hat Tip to Bhuvan Chano
Global warming is an entirely natural phenomenon and its effects can even be beneficial, according to two leading researchers. Recent climate change is not caused by man-made pollution, but is instead part of a 1,500-year cycle of warming and cooling that has happened for the last million years, say the authors of a controversial study. Dennis Avery, an environmental economist, and Professor Fred Singer, a physicist, have looked at the work of more than 500 scientists and concluded that it is very doubtful that man-made global warming exists. They also say that temperature increase is actually a good thing as in the past sudden cool periods have killed twice as many people as warm spells....Hat Tip to Bhuvan Chano
Federal court upholds Illinois law banning horse slaughter
The nation's last horse slaughtering plant could be forced to permanently close after a federal appeals court Friday upheld an Illinois law prohibiting the slaughter of horses for human consumption. A three-judge panel of the U.S. Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals cited measures banning bullfights and cockfights to help explain why it was upholding the law. “States have a legitimate interest in prolonging the lives of animals that their population happens to like,” the panel wrote. “They can ban bullfights and cockfights and the abuse and neglect of animals.” At Cavel International Inc.'s plant, located in the northern Illinois town of DeKalb, about 40,000 to 60,000 horses are slaughtered each year. Except for a portion sold to U.S. zoos, the meat is shipped to be eaten by diners overseas. The plant has been forced to close twice since late May, when Gov. Rod Blagojevich signed into law a measure banning the slaughter of horses for human consumption, or the import, export or possession of horse meat designated for human consumption. The plant was allowed to reopen during various court challenges to the law....
The nation's last horse slaughtering plant could be forced to permanently close after a federal appeals court Friday upheld an Illinois law prohibiting the slaughter of horses for human consumption. A three-judge panel of the U.S. Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals cited measures banning bullfights and cockfights to help explain why it was upholding the law. “States have a legitimate interest in prolonging the lives of animals that their population happens to like,” the panel wrote. “They can ban bullfights and cockfights and the abuse and neglect of animals.” At Cavel International Inc.'s plant, located in the northern Illinois town of DeKalb, about 40,000 to 60,000 horses are slaughtered each year. Except for a portion sold to U.S. zoos, the meat is shipped to be eaten by diners overseas. The plant has been forced to close twice since late May, when Gov. Rod Blagojevich signed into law a measure banning the slaughter of horses for human consumption, or the import, export or possession of horse meat designated for human consumption. The plant was allowed to reopen during various court challenges to the law....
Monday, September 24, 2007
Bush to host climate-change conference Global-warming specialists and international government climate-policy officials are gathering this week in Washington at the invitation of the White House, to hash out a plan to reduce greenhouse gases, which are thought to cause global warming. The Bush administration — which has been criticized for not doing enough to slow the process of global warming, for failing to ratify the Kyoto Protocol to reduce greenhouse gases — is hoping to move the process forward and demonstrate to the international community that it's serious about dealing with global warming. "At this meeting, [the U.S. will] seek agreement on the process by which the major economies would, by the end of 2008, agree upon a post-2012 framework that could include a long-term global goal, nationally defined midterm goals and strategies, and sector-based approaches for improving energy security and reducing greenhouse-gas emissions," said Harlen Watson, a senior climate negotiator for the United States at a global climate workshop in Vienna, Austria, late last month. Critics of the Bush administration on global warming are cautious. Eileen Claussen, president of the Pew Center on Global Climate Change, said this week's meeting "brings together the right group of countries," but is skeptical about the plan the Bush administration hopes to set up. The administration will host a Meeting of Major Economies on Climate Change and Energy Security on Thursday and Friday in Washington....
Climate Pact Needed Now to Avoid Disaster, Ban Says A new global commitment to cut greenhouse-gas emissions is urgently needed if the world hopes to avert the most dire affects of human-caused climate change, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said. ``The message is quite simple,'' Ban said today at a special UN session on climate change in New York. ``We know enough to act. If we don't act now, the impact of climate change will be devastating.'' The one-day summit, with about 80 heads of state or government attending, is the largest gathering ever of world leaders focused on the subject. The meeting is intended to set the stage for negotiations on a global climate agreement scheduled to begin in Indonesia in December. A ``real breakthrough'' will be needed to reach a new treaty before the current Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012, Ban said. A potential major sticking point is President George W. Bush's continued opposition to mandatory limits on carbon dioxide. Scientists say carbon dioxide is one of the main emissions causing temperatures to rise, which may lead to potentially irreversible climate shifts and rising sea levels that would threaten world economies, ecosystems and human health. World leaders as well as California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger indirectly ramped up the political pressure on Bush today by stressing the need for the world's major emitters to agree on greenhouse-gas reductions. Bush is set to address the annual UN General Assembly tomorrow....
Legislation that Would Enrich Select Special Interest Groups to be Voted on This Week This Wednesday, the House Natural Resources Committee will vote on a bill that would funnel over $135 million of federal pork to special interest groups in select members' districts. The "Celebrating America's Heritage Act," put forth by Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-AZ), would create six new national heritage areas, including the controversial Journey Through Hallowed Ground. It would also increase congressional funding for nine existing heritage areas by 50 percent. This self-dealing is indicative of a Congress that has little interest in reforming ethics or earmark abuse, says the National Center for Public Policy Research. National heritage areas are creations of Congress in which special interest groups, whose work at times has been funded through secret Congressional earmarks, team up with the National Park Service to influence decisions over local land use previously made exclusively by elected local governments and private landowners. For instance, the special interest group lobbying for the Journey Through Hallowed Ground heritage area (which has been quietly slipped into the Grijalva bill) received an anonymous one million-dollar earmark in the 2005 transportation bill. Incredibly, the group wasn't even incorporated at the time. This is an instance where one pork-barrel earmark was distributed to bolster support for another pork-barrel earmark. Congressman Jeff Flake (R-AZ) has observed: "[O]nce a federal line is drawn around property for a heritage area, the door for annual federal earmarks and grants is opened." According to figures from the National Taxpayers Union, the Celebrating America's Heritage Act's $135+ million price tag is equal to the annual federal income taxes paid by 33,276 middle class Americans. Ironically, it is the middle class that stands to lose the most, as heritage area interest groups are typically hostile to property rights and frequently use their muscle to restrict land use and make housing more expensive for middle-income buyers....
Mountain Lion Warning Issued in Santa Barbara County Santa Barbara's Sheriff's Department is warning residents in the Buellton area to be aware of mountain lions. Over the weekend there were sightings of two mountain lions near River Park, including a rancher who claims they killed small livestock Saturday morning. The rancher reported the deaths of small livestock and it is believed that the mountain lions are still at or above the River Park area. The Sheriff's Department is now urging residents to call 9-1-1 if these animals are sighted. State Fish and Game officials have been notified of mountain lions in the area as well.
Group: Wyo can limit fire risk More homes built near fire-prone forests mean ever higher firefighting costs for local, state and federal governments. And with 50 to 90 percent of wildfire-fighting costs spent to protect these homes, it's uncertain who's going to pick up the tab, says a new study by Headwaters Economics in Bozeman, Mont. Blending census and economic data with geographic information system maps, Headwaters Economics found that only 14 percent of the available “wildland/urban interface” in the West is currently developed, leaving tremendous potential for new home construction in the remaining 86 percent. The potential for growth in Wyoming is even greater: Only 4.1 percent of the Cowboy State’s wildland/urban interface has been developed, meaning 95.9 percent could still be developed. Other states are far worse off. The highest percentages of developed lands near forests are in Washington (21 percent) and Colorado (20 percent), while Wyoming and Utah have the smallest at 4.1 and 4.8 percent, respectively....
Outgoing chief says wildfires consume most of his budget The retiring chief of the U.S. Forest Service's Intermountain Region says the days of unrestricted cross-country travel on public lands are quickly coming to an end. Jack Troyer will empty his desk Oct. 3 in Ogden, where he took charge of 32 million acres of national forests and grasslands in Wyoming, Idaho, Utah, Nevada, California and Colorado. His replacement, Harv Forsgren, now regional forester for the Southwestern Region in New Mexico, will take over in December. Troyer, 60, is retiring as the Forest Service deals with growing conflicts on forest land and a buildup of forest debris blamed for causing more catastrophic wildfires. ''One of my greatest hopes is: We've got billions of tons of fuels out there, and we are a country that says we have an energy issue,'' said Troyer, who believes the forest debris could be turned into ethanol for transportation fuel. Troyer said 50 percent of his budget is being consumed by controlling wildfires, up from 13 percent in 1991. That has left less money for other programs, he said....
Nature has own 'let it burn' policy The Rocky Mountain Front's Ahorn and Skyland fires, which firefighters fought from the beginning, racked up expense sheets of more than $16 million a piece. Fool Creek, the third large fire on the Front this summer, which initially was allowed to burn in the wilderness under a policy called "fire use," cost just under $6 million to fight. The results were the same — each grew to between 50,000 and 60,000 acres. Forest Service experts say the similar outcomes — despite the $10-million gap in suppression costs — illustrate the futility and expense of trying to extinguish some of the large fires that are becoming the norm in tinder-dry forests across the West. At the same time, they add that fire management can be just as effective — with less risk and cost — if they strategically pick their spots and manage blazes long term, as they did with Fool Creek. Officials note that, in the future, the agency's response to fires needs to acknowledge, as does the public, that a bigger policymaker is at work in today's extreme fire environment. "It's Mother Nature's 'It's gonna burn' policy," said Mike Munoz, the ranger in the Rocky Mountain Ranger District, playing off the so-called 'let it burn' policy that has drawn fire for decades....
Climate Pact Needed Now to Avoid Disaster, Ban Says A new global commitment to cut greenhouse-gas emissions is urgently needed if the world hopes to avert the most dire affects of human-caused climate change, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said. ``The message is quite simple,'' Ban said today at a special UN session on climate change in New York. ``We know enough to act. If we don't act now, the impact of climate change will be devastating.'' The one-day summit, with about 80 heads of state or government attending, is the largest gathering ever of world leaders focused on the subject. The meeting is intended to set the stage for negotiations on a global climate agreement scheduled to begin in Indonesia in December. A ``real breakthrough'' will be needed to reach a new treaty before the current Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012, Ban said. A potential major sticking point is President George W. Bush's continued opposition to mandatory limits on carbon dioxide. Scientists say carbon dioxide is one of the main emissions causing temperatures to rise, which may lead to potentially irreversible climate shifts and rising sea levels that would threaten world economies, ecosystems and human health. World leaders as well as California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger indirectly ramped up the political pressure on Bush today by stressing the need for the world's major emitters to agree on greenhouse-gas reductions. Bush is set to address the annual UN General Assembly tomorrow....
Legislation that Would Enrich Select Special Interest Groups to be Voted on This Week This Wednesday, the House Natural Resources Committee will vote on a bill that would funnel over $135 million of federal pork to special interest groups in select members' districts. The "Celebrating America's Heritage Act," put forth by Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-AZ), would create six new national heritage areas, including the controversial Journey Through Hallowed Ground. It would also increase congressional funding for nine existing heritage areas by 50 percent. This self-dealing is indicative of a Congress that has little interest in reforming ethics or earmark abuse, says the National Center for Public Policy Research. National heritage areas are creations of Congress in which special interest groups, whose work at times has been funded through secret Congressional earmarks, team up with the National Park Service to influence decisions over local land use previously made exclusively by elected local governments and private landowners. For instance, the special interest group lobbying for the Journey Through Hallowed Ground heritage area (which has been quietly slipped into the Grijalva bill) received an anonymous one million-dollar earmark in the 2005 transportation bill. Incredibly, the group wasn't even incorporated at the time. This is an instance where one pork-barrel earmark was distributed to bolster support for another pork-barrel earmark. Congressman Jeff Flake (R-AZ) has observed: "[O]nce a federal line is drawn around property for a heritage area, the door for annual federal earmarks and grants is opened." According to figures from the National Taxpayers Union, the Celebrating America's Heritage Act's $135+ million price tag is equal to the annual federal income taxes paid by 33,276 middle class Americans. Ironically, it is the middle class that stands to lose the most, as heritage area interest groups are typically hostile to property rights and frequently use their muscle to restrict land use and make housing more expensive for middle-income buyers....
Mountain Lion Warning Issued in Santa Barbara County Santa Barbara's Sheriff's Department is warning residents in the Buellton area to be aware of mountain lions. Over the weekend there were sightings of two mountain lions near River Park, including a rancher who claims they killed small livestock Saturday morning. The rancher reported the deaths of small livestock and it is believed that the mountain lions are still at or above the River Park area. The Sheriff's Department is now urging residents to call 9-1-1 if these animals are sighted. State Fish and Game officials have been notified of mountain lions in the area as well.
Group: Wyo can limit fire risk More homes built near fire-prone forests mean ever higher firefighting costs for local, state and federal governments. And with 50 to 90 percent of wildfire-fighting costs spent to protect these homes, it's uncertain who's going to pick up the tab, says a new study by Headwaters Economics in Bozeman, Mont. Blending census and economic data with geographic information system maps, Headwaters Economics found that only 14 percent of the available “wildland/urban interface” in the West is currently developed, leaving tremendous potential for new home construction in the remaining 86 percent. The potential for growth in Wyoming is even greater: Only 4.1 percent of the Cowboy State’s wildland/urban interface has been developed, meaning 95.9 percent could still be developed. Other states are far worse off. The highest percentages of developed lands near forests are in Washington (21 percent) and Colorado (20 percent), while Wyoming and Utah have the smallest at 4.1 and 4.8 percent, respectively....
Outgoing chief says wildfires consume most of his budget The retiring chief of the U.S. Forest Service's Intermountain Region says the days of unrestricted cross-country travel on public lands are quickly coming to an end. Jack Troyer will empty his desk Oct. 3 in Ogden, where he took charge of 32 million acres of national forests and grasslands in Wyoming, Idaho, Utah, Nevada, California and Colorado. His replacement, Harv Forsgren, now regional forester for the Southwestern Region in New Mexico, will take over in December. Troyer, 60, is retiring as the Forest Service deals with growing conflicts on forest land and a buildup of forest debris blamed for causing more catastrophic wildfires. ''One of my greatest hopes is: We've got billions of tons of fuels out there, and we are a country that says we have an energy issue,'' said Troyer, who believes the forest debris could be turned into ethanol for transportation fuel. Troyer said 50 percent of his budget is being consumed by controlling wildfires, up from 13 percent in 1991. That has left less money for other programs, he said....
Nature has own 'let it burn' policy The Rocky Mountain Front's Ahorn and Skyland fires, which firefighters fought from the beginning, racked up expense sheets of more than $16 million a piece. Fool Creek, the third large fire on the Front this summer, which initially was allowed to burn in the wilderness under a policy called "fire use," cost just under $6 million to fight. The results were the same — each grew to between 50,000 and 60,000 acres. Forest Service experts say the similar outcomes — despite the $10-million gap in suppression costs — illustrate the futility and expense of trying to extinguish some of the large fires that are becoming the norm in tinder-dry forests across the West. At the same time, they add that fire management can be just as effective — with less risk and cost — if they strategically pick their spots and manage blazes long term, as they did with Fool Creek. Officials note that, in the future, the agency's response to fires needs to acknowledge, as does the public, that a bigger policymaker is at work in today's extreme fire environment. "It's Mother Nature's 'It's gonna burn' policy," said Mike Munoz, the ranger in the Rocky Mountain Ranger District, playing off the so-called 'let it burn' policy that has drawn fire for decades....
What Does Bison Restoration Look Like? One Rancher’s View n autumn 2006, the Wildlife Conservation Society held a landmark conference in Denver on the future of North American bison. Among the questions being pondered by the large gathering of conservationists, scientists, wildlife officials from the U.S., Canada and Mexico, and representatives from the commercial bison industry was this: Should bison be listed as a federally-protected species in the U.S. and moreover, do they warrant placement on the IUCN’s Red List as an imperiled animal in need of global focus? While no one in attendance disagreed with the fact that bison, when numbering in the tens of millions, were once keystone species on the Great Plains, shaping the health and structure of plant, animal, and human communities, there is a divergence of opinion about whether buffalo can ever be restored to such large numbers that they again fulfill their historic role. Is the Buffalo Commons achievable or is it a post-pleistocene pipe dream? Would listing of bison enhance the goals of bison recovery or would it alienate private ranchers who far and away are responsible for stewarding most of the bison in the world?....
Global plan to save endangered horse and livestock breeds Rare livestock breeds are becoming extinct at a rate of one per month, prompting 108 countries to agree on a global plan of action to save the animals, including horses. The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization called the extinction rate "alarming". "Wise management of the world's animal genetic resources is of ever greater importance," said FAO Assistant Director-General Alexander Muller, addressing participants at the first International Technical Conference on Animal Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture in Interlaken, Switzerland, earlier this month. "The options that these resources offer for maintaining and improving animal production will be of enormous significance in the coming decades," he said. "Climate change and the emergence of new and virulent livestock diseases highlight the importance of retaining the capacity to adapt our agricultural production systems." Livestock breeding is crucial in this respect, FAO believes....
Recovery aid not helping rancher who lost millions Two years after Hurricane Rita claimed 10,000 head of cattle in Vermilion Parish, the industry still is struggling to recover. "The cattle industry was probably the most severely hurt industry in our parish," said Andrew Granger, Vermilion Parish county agent with the LSU AgCenter. Charles Broussard, 83, of the Flying J Ranch in Forked Island figures he suffered about $2.5 million in losses from Rita's storm surge. He lost four bulls worth about $50,000 total and about 90 head of cattle in all. Some died after the storm from drinking the salt water that flooded their land and sent them scurrying to the levees for survival. Miles of fencing was destroyed, several tractors, trucks and diesel-power units were ruined, protection levees were destroyed and eight houses on his property were flooded. Broussard also farmed rice and crawfish before Rita. But the salt water Rita pushed in from the Gulf of Mexico soaked into his fields and ponds, rendering them useless ever since, he said. All those federal and state programs that are supposed to help have not done Broussard much good. "FEMA turned me down because I'm in agriculture. SBA turned me down because I'm (in) agriculture," Broussard said....
Smaller ranches begin to produce smaller cattle Ranchettes have replaced working ranches in much of California, and now there are pint-sized cows to match. In the past two years, Bev Boriolo, 72, and her husband, Don, have built a herd of 12 miniature Hereford cattle, all well under 4 feet tall. The couple, who live on a grassy 30-acre parcel near Plymouth, Calif., are raising animals for a small but growing niche in the livestock business: little cattle for little ranches. The smallest of the miniature breeds stand less than 3 feet tall, fully grown. They're cute, they keep the weeds down and, as Bev Boriolo says, "They're as sweet as the dickens" -- something she attributes to their small stature. For now, the money in micro-beef is in breeding: raising adorable cattle and selling them -- for $3,500 and up -- not as meat, but as the parents of another herd-to-be....
Polo for the T-shirt set Eight horses and riders thunder down a grassy field, mallets cracking against balls and hooves beating the turf in a Texas-style take on a sport sometimes dominated by the rich or royal. Most weekends from now through mid-November, equestrians gather at this neatly manicured, 300-yard-by-200-yard pasture to practice their own brand of polo. If you're envisioning a champagne-sipping, caviar-nibbling crowd that's more interested in who's wearing what than what's happening on the field, you don't know the folks of Spencewood Ranch Polo Club. "We're more the beer-and-chips crowd," says David Crea, 47, polo manager for the club. "We play just for the love of the game." While a few of the 35 or so members of the polo club are just learning the sport, which they fondly call "ranch polo," others spent years honing their skill at the now-defunct Retama Polo Center in San Antonio. The players, who range in age from 15 to their 60s, include a television news anchor from San Antonio, a mother of three, a dentist, a high school student and a rancher....
Saddle up! This pony's a smooth ride "Once you go Icelandic," said tall, blond-haired Jelena Ohm, who recently came from Iceland to train horses here, "you usually never go back." OK, people of Icelandic descent have been saying that ever since they arrived in 1875. What else is new? Actually, Ohm, is talking about Icelandic horses. You can say the same thing about Icelandic horses that they do about cars: it's one incredibly smooth ride. Even for the duffer horse rider. That's why people become so fanatical about the breed. The ride is so smooth there are events where riders race around a track while holding a mug of beer. "And they don't spill a drop," said Brett Arnason, one of the largest Icelandic horse ranchers in Canada, who has participated in the race. The reason is, Icelandic horses have a special gait called a tölt. Most horses trot by transferring their weight from two legs -- the front right and back left -- to its other two legs -- the front left and the back right. That bouncing back and forth makes it feel like your entrails are being rearranged, for the amateur rider. The Icelandic horse's tölt, which is very fast at 20 kilometres per hour, is a running walk where one foot is always on the ground. So, an Icelandic horse gait is 1-2-3-4 and repeat, like smooth dance steps....
Quirky old-style contraptions make water from wind on the mesas of West Texas As rows of towering, high-tech wind turbines become a common sight on the windy mesas of West Texas and beyond, a modest, far older cousin is making a quiet comeback here after decades of decline. While the sleek, three-bladed modern turbines — many Asian-made, stuffed with computer chips and costing millions — generate green electricity, the machines built here according to 19th-century designs serve a more basic need. Simply put, these quirky contraptions of wood, steel gears, iron casing and galvanized metal make water from the wind. And for about $6,000 installed, you can buy one — well hole not included. According to one noted Texas historian, more so than the Colt revolver, the Winchester repeating rifle or even barbed wire, it was the water-pumping windmill that tamed the American West. Bennie Hazelwood Jr. places a sticker on a vane that will go on a windmill at the Aermotor Windmill Corp. in San Angelo. Aermotor started making windmills in 1888. "Our parents, and most everybody else out here, grew up with windmills. You could not come to this part of Texas and live without one," said Coy Harris, director of the American Windmill Museum in Lubbock. "In 1900, every house in town had its own windmill. If you wanted to live here, you had one. Otherwise, you were just passing through," he said. Until the late 1800s, when affordable and efficient windmills became widely available, settlers in arid parts of Texas and the Great Plains prospered only near sources of surface water....
It's All Trew: New Deal art provided hope Whether considered a curse or a blessing, the "New Deal Programs" of President Franklin Roosevelt during the Great Depression and Dust Bowl helped provide food and money for millions of people during these hard years. In all walks of life, old timers recall their time spent working for the WPA in various public works projects or the lifesaving CCC serving young men offering food, board and practical training in many fields. Lesser-known New Deal Programs to aid smaller special groups came into being in 1933 when the U.S. Treasury launched a program called the Public Works of Art Project. Funds were allocated to help artists, writers and photographers to record current history, the mass migration of the people and to try to bring some beauty into a drab existence. There were no shortages of artists or subjects. The first problem was where to display the art? Since a part of the Public Works Program was to build much-needed government or public buildings providing work for the people, many new post offices and federal buildings were constructed and chosen to display the artistic murals created by the artists. The term "mural" comes from the Latin word murus, meaning wall. Thus artwork appearing on walls or extended areas are called murals. Often, the new buildings had areas that were odd-size or had windows or doors in the selected mural site challenging the artists further. By the end of the program in 1934, about 15,660 works of art including 700 murals, painted by 3,750 artists were displayed throughout the nation. Later the program was extended from 1938 to 1943, creating many more....
Global plan to save endangered horse and livestock breeds Rare livestock breeds are becoming extinct at a rate of one per month, prompting 108 countries to agree on a global plan of action to save the animals, including horses. The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization called the extinction rate "alarming". "Wise management of the world's animal genetic resources is of ever greater importance," said FAO Assistant Director-General Alexander Muller, addressing participants at the first International Technical Conference on Animal Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture in Interlaken, Switzerland, earlier this month. "The options that these resources offer for maintaining and improving animal production will be of enormous significance in the coming decades," he said. "Climate change and the emergence of new and virulent livestock diseases highlight the importance of retaining the capacity to adapt our agricultural production systems." Livestock breeding is crucial in this respect, FAO believes....
Recovery aid not helping rancher who lost millions Two years after Hurricane Rita claimed 10,000 head of cattle in Vermilion Parish, the industry still is struggling to recover. "The cattle industry was probably the most severely hurt industry in our parish," said Andrew Granger, Vermilion Parish county agent with the LSU AgCenter. Charles Broussard, 83, of the Flying J Ranch in Forked Island figures he suffered about $2.5 million in losses from Rita's storm surge. He lost four bulls worth about $50,000 total and about 90 head of cattle in all. Some died after the storm from drinking the salt water that flooded their land and sent them scurrying to the levees for survival. Miles of fencing was destroyed, several tractors, trucks and diesel-power units were ruined, protection levees were destroyed and eight houses on his property were flooded. Broussard also farmed rice and crawfish before Rita. But the salt water Rita pushed in from the Gulf of Mexico soaked into his fields and ponds, rendering them useless ever since, he said. All those federal and state programs that are supposed to help have not done Broussard much good. "FEMA turned me down because I'm in agriculture. SBA turned me down because I'm (in) agriculture," Broussard said....
Smaller ranches begin to produce smaller cattle Ranchettes have replaced working ranches in much of California, and now there are pint-sized cows to match. In the past two years, Bev Boriolo, 72, and her husband, Don, have built a herd of 12 miniature Hereford cattle, all well under 4 feet tall. The couple, who live on a grassy 30-acre parcel near Plymouth, Calif., are raising animals for a small but growing niche in the livestock business: little cattle for little ranches. The smallest of the miniature breeds stand less than 3 feet tall, fully grown. They're cute, they keep the weeds down and, as Bev Boriolo says, "They're as sweet as the dickens" -- something she attributes to their small stature. For now, the money in micro-beef is in breeding: raising adorable cattle and selling them -- for $3,500 and up -- not as meat, but as the parents of another herd-to-be....
Polo for the T-shirt set Eight horses and riders thunder down a grassy field, mallets cracking against balls and hooves beating the turf in a Texas-style take on a sport sometimes dominated by the rich or royal. Most weekends from now through mid-November, equestrians gather at this neatly manicured, 300-yard-by-200-yard pasture to practice their own brand of polo. If you're envisioning a champagne-sipping, caviar-nibbling crowd that's more interested in who's wearing what than what's happening on the field, you don't know the folks of Spencewood Ranch Polo Club. "We're more the beer-and-chips crowd," says David Crea, 47, polo manager for the club. "We play just for the love of the game." While a few of the 35 or so members of the polo club are just learning the sport, which they fondly call "ranch polo," others spent years honing their skill at the now-defunct Retama Polo Center in San Antonio. The players, who range in age from 15 to their 60s, include a television news anchor from San Antonio, a mother of three, a dentist, a high school student and a rancher....
Saddle up! This pony's a smooth ride "Once you go Icelandic," said tall, blond-haired Jelena Ohm, who recently came from Iceland to train horses here, "you usually never go back." OK, people of Icelandic descent have been saying that ever since they arrived in 1875. What else is new? Actually, Ohm, is talking about Icelandic horses. You can say the same thing about Icelandic horses that they do about cars: it's one incredibly smooth ride. Even for the duffer horse rider. That's why people become so fanatical about the breed. The ride is so smooth there are events where riders race around a track while holding a mug of beer. "And they don't spill a drop," said Brett Arnason, one of the largest Icelandic horse ranchers in Canada, who has participated in the race. The reason is, Icelandic horses have a special gait called a tölt. Most horses trot by transferring their weight from two legs -- the front right and back left -- to its other two legs -- the front left and the back right. That bouncing back and forth makes it feel like your entrails are being rearranged, for the amateur rider. The Icelandic horse's tölt, which is very fast at 20 kilometres per hour, is a running walk where one foot is always on the ground. So, an Icelandic horse gait is 1-2-3-4 and repeat, like smooth dance steps....
Quirky old-style contraptions make water from wind on the mesas of West Texas As rows of towering, high-tech wind turbines become a common sight on the windy mesas of West Texas and beyond, a modest, far older cousin is making a quiet comeback here after decades of decline. While the sleek, three-bladed modern turbines — many Asian-made, stuffed with computer chips and costing millions — generate green electricity, the machines built here according to 19th-century designs serve a more basic need. Simply put, these quirky contraptions of wood, steel gears, iron casing and galvanized metal make water from the wind. And for about $6,000 installed, you can buy one — well hole not included. According to one noted Texas historian, more so than the Colt revolver, the Winchester repeating rifle or even barbed wire, it was the water-pumping windmill that tamed the American West. Bennie Hazelwood Jr. places a sticker on a vane that will go on a windmill at the Aermotor Windmill Corp. in San Angelo. Aermotor started making windmills in 1888. "Our parents, and most everybody else out here, grew up with windmills. You could not come to this part of Texas and live without one," said Coy Harris, director of the American Windmill Museum in Lubbock. "In 1900, every house in town had its own windmill. If you wanted to live here, you had one. Otherwise, you were just passing through," he said. Until the late 1800s, when affordable and efficient windmills became widely available, settlers in arid parts of Texas and the Great Plains prospered only near sources of surface water....
It's All Trew: New Deal art provided hope Whether considered a curse or a blessing, the "New Deal Programs" of President Franklin Roosevelt during the Great Depression and Dust Bowl helped provide food and money for millions of people during these hard years. In all walks of life, old timers recall their time spent working for the WPA in various public works projects or the lifesaving CCC serving young men offering food, board and practical training in many fields. Lesser-known New Deal Programs to aid smaller special groups came into being in 1933 when the U.S. Treasury launched a program called the Public Works of Art Project. Funds were allocated to help artists, writers and photographers to record current history, the mass migration of the people and to try to bring some beauty into a drab existence. There were no shortages of artists or subjects. The first problem was where to display the art? Since a part of the Public Works Program was to build much-needed government or public buildings providing work for the people, many new post offices and federal buildings were constructed and chosen to display the artistic murals created by the artists. The term "mural" comes from the Latin word murus, meaning wall. Thus artwork appearing on walls or extended areas are called murals. Often, the new buildings had areas that were odd-size or had windows or doors in the selected mural site challenging the artists further. By the end of the program in 1934, about 15,660 works of art including 700 murals, painted by 3,750 artists were displayed throughout the nation. Later the program was extended from 1938 to 1943, creating many more....
Sunday, September 23, 2007
GAO
South Florida Ecosystem: Some Restoration Progress Has Been Made, but the Effort Faces Significant Delays, Implementation Challenges, and Rising Costs, by Anu K. Mittal, director, natural resources and environment, before the Subcommittee on International Operations and Organizations, Democracy, and Human Rights, Senate Committee on Foreign Relations. GAO-07-1250T, September 19.
http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-07-1250T
Highlights - http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d071250thigh.pdf
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service: Additional Flexibility Needed to Deal with Farmlands Received from the Department of Agriculture. GAO-07-1092, September 18.
http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-07-1092
Highlights - http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d071092high.pdf
Agricultural Conservation: Farm Program Payments Are an Important Factor in Landowners' Decisions to Convert Grassland to Cropland. GAO-07-1054, September 10.
http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-07-1054
Highlights - http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d071054high.pdf
South Florida Ecosystem: Some Restoration Progress Has Been Made, but the Effort Faces Significant Delays, Implementation Challenges, and Rising Costs, by Anu K. Mittal, director, natural resources and environment, before the Subcommittee on International Operations and Organizations, Democracy, and Human Rights, Senate Committee on Foreign Relations. GAO-07-1250T, September 19.
http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-07-1250T
Highlights - http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d071250thigh.pdf
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service: Additional Flexibility Needed to Deal with Farmlands Received from the Department of Agriculture. GAO-07-1092, September 18.
http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-07-1092
Highlights - http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d071092high.pdf
Agricultural Conservation: Farm Program Payments Are an Important Factor in Landowners' Decisions to Convert Grassland to Cropland. GAO-07-1054, September 10.
http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-07-1054
Highlights - http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d071054high.pdf
Montana Wolf Mystery Revived, Snared Wolf Possible Hybrid A mystery predator responsible for 12 sheep deaths in Eastern Montana last month could be connected to the dozens of similar attacks in late 2005 and early 2006, which some officials blame on a domestic hybrid species of wolf. Montana’s top wolf official said this week that two suspicious animals remain on the loose in and near Garfield County following the sheep deaths in late August. A third animal killed in a coyote snare earlier this month has yet to be positively identified as wild or domestic. “It’s a young female, charcoal gray in color,” said Carolyn Sime, wolf coordinator for Fish, Wildlife and Parks. “It looks like something we would see in the Northern Rockies, but I’ve also seen domestic wolves that look the same. It’s unclear what the origin is.” The recent deaths revive last year’s furor in McCone and Garfield Counties over the 100-plus sheep slaughtered, and the subsequent hunt that ultimately left dead a domestic wolf, the product, officials believe, of manipulated breeding in captivity. More than that, the frustration of stockmen, as Hal Herring wrote last year for NewWest.Net, was “not entirely directed at the creature itself (the stockmen here know full well how to handle that problem) but at the federal and state governments, at complex regulations imposed to protect an animal that they despise, and at a far-away society that seems to have lost all respect for them and their constant struggle to remain self-reliant, solvent, and on the land.”...
ATVs and the people who use them My son had been lost for the entire night in the mountains of northeast Oregon when volunteers from the Union County Search and Rescue Team showed up with All Terrain Vehicles (ATVs). I was never so glad to see machinery in my entire life. They helped find him later that morning. I was slogging through deep snow near the Malheur River east of Juntura a few years ago in search of chukars when I heard the distinctive growl of ATVs in the distance. I looked up to see two of them cresting the hill above me and continuing out of sight. I had a bad feeling about their presence where there were no established trails. My concern was proven justified a few minutes later when I cut their track. The two machines had simply driven straight uphill from the river, taking advantage of the deep snow to drive on top of sagebrush and bunchgrasses. The weight of the machines broke down the sagebrush and left a trail of shattered branches and trunks. In places where the snow was shallow, their tires had cut through to the soil, gouging it out and spraying it across the snow. By the time I headed back that evening, the ATVs had departed. They had, for the most part, followed the same track down the hill. At least they had not carved a new track across the virgin desert, but their second trip down the hill completed the destruction of the sagebrush, breaking it down so completely that when the snow melted it was no longer high enough to prevent ATV travel. Predictably, ATV drivers began using the track regularly and now it is a steep, deeply rutted scar on the hill from which hundreds, if not thousands of pounds of dirt is washed off directly toward the Malheur River....
Forest Service Wins Next Round on Mount Lemmon Case Goliath has won the next round in the David-and-Goliath battle going on down in Tucson, and the court decision should send a chill down the spine of anybody who uses public land for outdoor recreation. On September 6, U.S. District Judge John Roll convicted Christine Wallace of using public land without paying, and he was quite “nasty” about it, according to Wallace’s supporters. “It was no surprise that she was found guilty,” Kitty Benzar of the Western Slope No-Fee Coalition told NewWest.Net in an interview today. “The surprise was how nasty he was about it. He (the judge) treated her like a low-life criminal.” Wallace received the maximum fine, $100, and according to Benzar, “if she goes up there (Mount Lemmon) again and parks along that state highway and goes hiking on federal land, she could go to jail for six months.” And it sounds like that’s what could happen if the case was heard in Roll’s court. “He (Roll) was very favorable to the prosecution,” she said. “He didn’t need to be that nasty about it.” To get background on the recreational fee issue, go to NewWest.Net’s Recreation Fee Chronology. But briefly, Congress attached a rider on a must-pass spending bill in 2004 and the Federal Lands Recreation Enhancement Act (FLREA) became the law of the land without a congressional vote and minimal public input. That’s one reason fee opponents, people who believe public lands are a free tradition, call it Recreational Access Tax (RAT)....Now that recreationists are feeling the sting from the Forest Service and Federal prosecutors, maybe they will have a little more sympathy and understanding for ranchers who are being treated far worse.
Coloradans huddle to map out war on epidemic devastating forests Amid mountains covered by ailing, rust-colored pines, about 100 people pored over maps and discussed priorities Thursday in the battle to slow the spread of forest-killing beetles and clean up the destruction already wreaked. The Colorado Bark Beetle Cooperative is helping shape the U.S. Forest Service’s strategy for dealing with more than 1,000 square miles of trees infested by the bugs that burrow beneath a tree’s bark and sap its life. The result has been huge swaths and, in some cases, entire mountainsides of brown trees. The Forest Service, state agencies and private landowners have sprayed trees and felled others to prevent a buildup of dry fuel for wildfires. The bark beetle cooperative, which includes federal, state and local agencies, business and civic leaders and residents of western and central Colorado, is helping shape how the Forest Service responds to the epidemic....
Ammo more expensive; hunters bearing burden One wonders if legendary trapper Jeremiah Johnson ever had to worry about this. If you’re a hunter, a recreational shooter or a farmer or rancher trying to keep varmints away from your crops and livestock, you might have noticed the escalating price of ammunition. Ammunition prices went up 15 percent across the board on all types in early September, said Jim Hixson, Bears Ears Sportsman Club membership director. By Joe Herod’s estimation, the price has gone up 39 percent this year. Herod owns Craig Sports, which supplies many of the hunters in town with their equipment and ammunition. “Oh, they complain everyday,” Herod said. “There’s nothing I can do about it, though. Because of the war, and the way the prices on zinc and copper have gone up, there’s nothing anyone can do about it.” The raw materials to make bullets have become scarcer recently because of the demand coming from the world market. Industrializing countries such as China and India in particular have started ordering large quantities of lead, copper and brass, said Sam Bobst, a hunter from Wernersville, Pa., who was in Craig for the first hunting season....
Private farmers squeezed by Venezuelan socialism These should be the best of times for dairy farmer Luis Espinoza. The Venezuelan economy is booming, thanks to a flood of oil dollars, and consumer demand for food items including milk and cheese is unprecedented. Overall consumption by Venezuelans is up 10% this year, and vendors of cars, clothing, computers and many other goods are raking it in. But things couldn't be much worse for Espinoza and hundreds of ranchers and farmers like him here in the northeastern state of Monagas. Espinoza's herd is dwindling, his milk output is shrinking and his future is more tenuous by the day. He is a casualty of President Hugo Chavez's Socialism for the 21st Century, as the fiery leader calls his economic plan. Chavez's policies are squeezing out private farms in favor of worker-owned cooperatives that enjoy massive government subsidies and for which profits are of secondary importance. Espinoza's problem is he cannot produce milk at the low price -- 50 cents a liter -- that the Chavez government has set for it. Nor can most private ranchers. Milk is one of 29 basic food items on which Chavez has slapped price controls. Others include cooking oil, flour, canned tuna, eggs, beef and poultry. Espinoza and other producers complain that the artificially low prices are leading them to ruin. The lifelong rancher says he is under more than just economic pressure. In Venezuela's increasingly polarized society, he says, for-profit farmers are made to feel like villains....
Commission says cattle guards will stay Like it or not, the cattle guards are going to stay on Quay Road 70, the Quay County commissioners told rancher Dusty Stone at their Friday meeting. Stone and his dad, Lee Stone, drive a team of horses on the road to check their land and animals. The installation of cattle guards over the summer, at the request of a neighboring landowner, requires them to stop, get off their rig and tie up the horses to open a gate so that they can proceed down the road. Dusty Stone came to the meeting to ask for the cattle guards to be removed. And even though he argued his case for more than an hour, citing various state statues, he did not prevail. "I want the cattle guards out of there," Stone told the commissioners. "The cattle guards stay," commissioner Franklin McCasland said. The commissioners, however, did agree that a better gate, latching system and maintenance of the cattle guards could be provided by the county. After the meeting Stone said, "It was business, I don't want anyone to take anything personal. But anybody who wants to come look at the situation can." Stone also said that horses and a team have the same rights as vehicles on the roads. "If you can't have a gate across a road to make a car stop and open a gate, then you shouldn't be able to have a gate on a road that makes someone driving a team stop and open a gate."....
ATVs and the people who use them My son had been lost for the entire night in the mountains of northeast Oregon when volunteers from the Union County Search and Rescue Team showed up with All Terrain Vehicles (ATVs). I was never so glad to see machinery in my entire life. They helped find him later that morning. I was slogging through deep snow near the Malheur River east of Juntura a few years ago in search of chukars when I heard the distinctive growl of ATVs in the distance. I looked up to see two of them cresting the hill above me and continuing out of sight. I had a bad feeling about their presence where there were no established trails. My concern was proven justified a few minutes later when I cut their track. The two machines had simply driven straight uphill from the river, taking advantage of the deep snow to drive on top of sagebrush and bunchgrasses. The weight of the machines broke down the sagebrush and left a trail of shattered branches and trunks. In places where the snow was shallow, their tires had cut through to the soil, gouging it out and spraying it across the snow. By the time I headed back that evening, the ATVs had departed. They had, for the most part, followed the same track down the hill. At least they had not carved a new track across the virgin desert, but their second trip down the hill completed the destruction of the sagebrush, breaking it down so completely that when the snow melted it was no longer high enough to prevent ATV travel. Predictably, ATV drivers began using the track regularly and now it is a steep, deeply rutted scar on the hill from which hundreds, if not thousands of pounds of dirt is washed off directly toward the Malheur River....
Forest Service Wins Next Round on Mount Lemmon Case Goliath has won the next round in the David-and-Goliath battle going on down in Tucson, and the court decision should send a chill down the spine of anybody who uses public land for outdoor recreation. On September 6, U.S. District Judge John Roll convicted Christine Wallace of using public land without paying, and he was quite “nasty” about it, according to Wallace’s supporters. “It was no surprise that she was found guilty,” Kitty Benzar of the Western Slope No-Fee Coalition told NewWest.Net in an interview today. “The surprise was how nasty he was about it. He (the judge) treated her like a low-life criminal.” Wallace received the maximum fine, $100, and according to Benzar, “if she goes up there (Mount Lemmon) again and parks along that state highway and goes hiking on federal land, she could go to jail for six months.” And it sounds like that’s what could happen if the case was heard in Roll’s court. “He (Roll) was very favorable to the prosecution,” she said. “He didn’t need to be that nasty about it.” To get background on the recreational fee issue, go to NewWest.Net’s Recreation Fee Chronology. But briefly, Congress attached a rider on a must-pass spending bill in 2004 and the Federal Lands Recreation Enhancement Act (FLREA) became the law of the land without a congressional vote and minimal public input. That’s one reason fee opponents, people who believe public lands are a free tradition, call it Recreational Access Tax (RAT)....Now that recreationists are feeling the sting from the Forest Service and Federal prosecutors, maybe they will have a little more sympathy and understanding for ranchers who are being treated far worse.
Coloradans huddle to map out war on epidemic devastating forests Amid mountains covered by ailing, rust-colored pines, about 100 people pored over maps and discussed priorities Thursday in the battle to slow the spread of forest-killing beetles and clean up the destruction already wreaked. The Colorado Bark Beetle Cooperative is helping shape the U.S. Forest Service’s strategy for dealing with more than 1,000 square miles of trees infested by the bugs that burrow beneath a tree’s bark and sap its life. The result has been huge swaths and, in some cases, entire mountainsides of brown trees. The Forest Service, state agencies and private landowners have sprayed trees and felled others to prevent a buildup of dry fuel for wildfires. The bark beetle cooperative, which includes federal, state and local agencies, business and civic leaders and residents of western and central Colorado, is helping shape how the Forest Service responds to the epidemic....
Ammo more expensive; hunters bearing burden One wonders if legendary trapper Jeremiah Johnson ever had to worry about this. If you’re a hunter, a recreational shooter or a farmer or rancher trying to keep varmints away from your crops and livestock, you might have noticed the escalating price of ammunition. Ammunition prices went up 15 percent across the board on all types in early September, said Jim Hixson, Bears Ears Sportsman Club membership director. By Joe Herod’s estimation, the price has gone up 39 percent this year. Herod owns Craig Sports, which supplies many of the hunters in town with their equipment and ammunition. “Oh, they complain everyday,” Herod said. “There’s nothing I can do about it, though. Because of the war, and the way the prices on zinc and copper have gone up, there’s nothing anyone can do about it.” The raw materials to make bullets have become scarcer recently because of the demand coming from the world market. Industrializing countries such as China and India in particular have started ordering large quantities of lead, copper and brass, said Sam Bobst, a hunter from Wernersville, Pa., who was in Craig for the first hunting season....
Private farmers squeezed by Venezuelan socialism These should be the best of times for dairy farmer Luis Espinoza. The Venezuelan economy is booming, thanks to a flood of oil dollars, and consumer demand for food items including milk and cheese is unprecedented. Overall consumption by Venezuelans is up 10% this year, and vendors of cars, clothing, computers and many other goods are raking it in. But things couldn't be much worse for Espinoza and hundreds of ranchers and farmers like him here in the northeastern state of Monagas. Espinoza's herd is dwindling, his milk output is shrinking and his future is more tenuous by the day. He is a casualty of President Hugo Chavez's Socialism for the 21st Century, as the fiery leader calls his economic plan. Chavez's policies are squeezing out private farms in favor of worker-owned cooperatives that enjoy massive government subsidies and for which profits are of secondary importance. Espinoza's problem is he cannot produce milk at the low price -- 50 cents a liter -- that the Chavez government has set for it. Nor can most private ranchers. Milk is one of 29 basic food items on which Chavez has slapped price controls. Others include cooking oil, flour, canned tuna, eggs, beef and poultry. Espinoza and other producers complain that the artificially low prices are leading them to ruin. The lifelong rancher says he is under more than just economic pressure. In Venezuela's increasingly polarized society, he says, for-profit farmers are made to feel like villains....
Commission says cattle guards will stay Like it or not, the cattle guards are going to stay on Quay Road 70, the Quay County commissioners told rancher Dusty Stone at their Friday meeting. Stone and his dad, Lee Stone, drive a team of horses on the road to check their land and animals. The installation of cattle guards over the summer, at the request of a neighboring landowner, requires them to stop, get off their rig and tie up the horses to open a gate so that they can proceed down the road. Dusty Stone came to the meeting to ask for the cattle guards to be removed. And even though he argued his case for more than an hour, citing various state statues, he did not prevail. "I want the cattle guards out of there," Stone told the commissioners. "The cattle guards stay," commissioner Franklin McCasland said. The commissioners, however, did agree that a better gate, latching system and maintenance of the cattle guards could be provided by the county. After the meeting Stone said, "It was business, I don't want anyone to take anything personal. But anybody who wants to come look at the situation can." Stone also said that horses and a team have the same rights as vehicles on the roads. "If you can't have a gate across a road to make a car stop and open a gate, then you shouldn't be able to have a gate on a road that makes someone driving a team stop and open a gate."....
Johanns' Resignation Letter To President Bush
It has been a great honor to serve you and the American people as Secretary of Agriculture for nearly three years. After careful thought and difficult deliberation, I am writing to inform you that I have decided to pursue a new opportunity to serve this great Nation. Please accept my resignation effective today, September 19, 2007 and my gratitude for the distinct privilege to serve in your Cabinet. Under your leadership and vision, American agriculture is stronger than ever before in history. Your presidency has had a profoundly positive impact on the lives of Americans in both rural and urban communities. Farm equity, now at $2 trillion, has increased $200 billion per year for the past several years. The debt-to-asset ratio is the lowest in more than 45 years. Projected 2007 net cash income is a record high $86 billion. The average farm household income is projected at $81,500 this year, nearly $20,000 above the average household income in the U.S. Overall farm balance sheets reveal a strong and growing farm economy. Agricultural exports are expected to set a fourth consecutive record this year, with a projected value of $79 billion. The strong stance you've taken with international leaders in relation to beef trade has led to the re-opening of more than 40 key markets to U.S. beef. This year, U.S. beef exports have increased 18 percent over last year and negotiations are underway to achieve additional market openings....
Chuck Conner Named Acting Secretary Of Agriculture
Charles F. Conner was sworn in as Deputy Secretary of Agriculture on May 2, 2005, by Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns. Mr. Conner's love for agriculture goes back to his childhood, growing up on his family's farm in Benton County, Indiana. There, he worked with his father and brother raising corn, soybeans, and cattle. Mr. Conner's brother, Mike, still operates the family farm. Since coming to the Department, Mr. Conner has worked tirelessly to develop and promote the Administration's farm policy. Along with former Secretary of Agriculture Mike Johanns, Mr. Conner led farm bill listening sessions around the country, hearing first-hand from farmers and other stakeholders about their likes and dislikes with the current farm bill. He also led the Department's review of over 4000 comments which were used to develop a sound policy direction for the future of American agriculture. Mr. Conner continues to lead the Administration's efforts for farm policy reform. Prior to his tenure at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Mr. Conner served on the National Economic Council beginning in November 2001 as a Special Assistant to the President for Agricultural Trade and Food Assistance, focusing primarily on Farm Bill issues. From 1997 to 2001, Mr. Conner was President of the Corn Refiners Association, Inc., a national trade association representing the corn refining industry. Prior to his tenure with the Corn Refiners Association, Conner held several staff positions with the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry....
Johanns Resigns as Agriculture Secretary
Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns resigned Thursday amid reports he will run for the Senate in his home state of Nebraska. Johanns has not officially announced that he will run for the seat of retiring GOP Sen. Chuck Hagel, but Bush hinted strongly that such a bid is in the making. He sad “there’s no question in my mind that Mike loves Nebraska, and he’s serious about going home and possibly serving the nation in a different capacity.” The president said he offered Johanns his support and encouragement and added, “If it’s Mike’s decision and Nebraska’s choice, he would make an outstanding member of the United States Senate. There is no doubt in my mind.” Many Republican insiders see Johanns as their party’s strongest possible contender, with the best hope of holding the seat if Democrat Bob Kerrey, another former Nebraska governor (1983-87) and U.S. senator (1989-2001), jumps into the Senate race. Kerrey is president of The New School in New York City. Johanns may have to fight for the GOP nomination. Already in the field for the May 13 primary are state Attorney General Jon Bruning, former U.S. Rep. Hal Daub (1981-89) and investment banker Pat Flynn. Bruning, who was planning to challenge an incumbent senator, and Daub, who just entered the race, have no plans to drop out. Johanns would be the early Republican front-runner in a GOP primary, however. Bruning’s own poll has Johanns up by about nine points in a matchup of the two....
It has been a great honor to serve you and the American people as Secretary of Agriculture for nearly three years. After careful thought and difficult deliberation, I am writing to inform you that I have decided to pursue a new opportunity to serve this great Nation. Please accept my resignation effective today, September 19, 2007 and my gratitude for the distinct privilege to serve in your Cabinet. Under your leadership and vision, American agriculture is stronger than ever before in history. Your presidency has had a profoundly positive impact on the lives of Americans in both rural and urban communities. Farm equity, now at $2 trillion, has increased $200 billion per year for the past several years. The debt-to-asset ratio is the lowest in more than 45 years. Projected 2007 net cash income is a record high $86 billion. The average farm household income is projected at $81,500 this year, nearly $20,000 above the average household income in the U.S. Overall farm balance sheets reveal a strong and growing farm economy. Agricultural exports are expected to set a fourth consecutive record this year, with a projected value of $79 billion. The strong stance you've taken with international leaders in relation to beef trade has led to the re-opening of more than 40 key markets to U.S. beef. This year, U.S. beef exports have increased 18 percent over last year and negotiations are underway to achieve additional market openings....
Chuck Conner Named Acting Secretary Of Agriculture
Charles F. Conner was sworn in as Deputy Secretary of Agriculture on May 2, 2005, by Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns. Mr. Conner's love for agriculture goes back to his childhood, growing up on his family's farm in Benton County, Indiana. There, he worked with his father and brother raising corn, soybeans, and cattle. Mr. Conner's brother, Mike, still operates the family farm. Since coming to the Department, Mr. Conner has worked tirelessly to develop and promote the Administration's farm policy. Along with former Secretary of Agriculture Mike Johanns, Mr. Conner led farm bill listening sessions around the country, hearing first-hand from farmers and other stakeholders about their likes and dislikes with the current farm bill. He also led the Department's review of over 4000 comments which were used to develop a sound policy direction for the future of American agriculture. Mr. Conner continues to lead the Administration's efforts for farm policy reform. Prior to his tenure at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Mr. Conner served on the National Economic Council beginning in November 2001 as a Special Assistant to the President for Agricultural Trade and Food Assistance, focusing primarily on Farm Bill issues. From 1997 to 2001, Mr. Conner was President of the Corn Refiners Association, Inc., a national trade association representing the corn refining industry. Prior to his tenure with the Corn Refiners Association, Conner held several staff positions with the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry....
Johanns Resigns as Agriculture Secretary
Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns resigned Thursday amid reports he will run for the Senate in his home state of Nebraska. Johanns has not officially announced that he will run for the seat of retiring GOP Sen. Chuck Hagel, but Bush hinted strongly that such a bid is in the making. He sad “there’s no question in my mind that Mike loves Nebraska, and he’s serious about going home and possibly serving the nation in a different capacity.” The president said he offered Johanns his support and encouragement and added, “If it’s Mike’s decision and Nebraska’s choice, he would make an outstanding member of the United States Senate. There is no doubt in my mind.” Many Republican insiders see Johanns as their party’s strongest possible contender, with the best hope of holding the seat if Democrat Bob Kerrey, another former Nebraska governor (1983-87) and U.S. senator (1989-2001), jumps into the Senate race. Kerrey is president of The New School in New York City. Johanns may have to fight for the GOP nomination. Already in the field for the May 13 primary are state Attorney General Jon Bruning, former U.S. Rep. Hal Daub (1981-89) and investment banker Pat Flynn. Bruning, who was planning to challenge an incumbent senator, and Daub, who just entered the race, have no plans to drop out. Johanns would be the early Republican front-runner in a GOP primary, however. Bruning’s own poll has Johanns up by about nine points in a matchup of the two....
Save a piece of history
Cowgirl Sass And Savvy
By Julie Carter
For whatever reason, the fall season always makes me nostalgic.
I find my thoughts often wander to memories of this time of year in a place far away and a time long ago on a high mountain ranch where summer ended abruptly, usually just after Labor Day.
It was a big outfit by mountain-ranch standards that pastured 4,000 yearlings from spring until fall. The yearlings arrived small, waspy, and left fat and sassy.
Mental images re-main of a long line of cattle trucks waiting their turn at the loading chute, dust boiling high above the pens as the cattle milled, and the profile of a cowboy horseback looking like a picture postcard with the rising sun behind him and the dust forming a filter of light around him.
The sounds of the banging of the scale gate as each bunch passed through to be weighed for the final tally, a cowboy hollering at each bunch as he drove them down the alley and the deafening sound of cattle bawling that never stopped until the last truck pulled away.
It wasn't history at the time. It was life. The stories told by my dad and granddad back then were their history. It was about life lived in a different era. An era when they still rode horses to a one-room school house, an era when babies were birthed at home and maybe the country doctor got there, but usually not.
It was a time when owning a pair of shoes was almost a sign of wealth and a dime might mean the difference between eating or not.
Back then, a cowboy wasn't an icon for what had been. He was what he was. Later he became that which is memorialized in stories, in books and movies.
We in the West have a history that is a chapter about the immigration and emancipation of this country and yet a story unto itself for there is nothing else like it.
The best tell-it-like-it-was stories are from the old guy sitting under the shade of his hat watching what he can no longer do. He will tell you stories of cow herds so big you couldn't recognize the cowboy on the other side. He recalls horses that bucked, horses that could run like the wind and horses that died in the line of duty.
He will detail cattle markets of that day and speak of a day's wages that wouldn't buy a cup of coffee in today's world. He will recall droughts, floods, and winters of record-breaking cold and snow. He will share stories about great friends, fine men of character and heartbreaking losses.
He remembers the time before there were fences and cattle that ran on ranges the size of three counties. He watched the West be surveyed with a wheel that delivered an accuracy that still astounds men today. He was entertained with music and song by the campfire, or better yet, at the good-eats of an ice cream social.
Now when I write my stories of my childhood, my daughter tells me, "Mom I have learned more about your life from those stories than I ever knew before."
Case and point. It is important to listen to the stories from those that went before us. It is equally as important to take the time to tell our stories. They are part of history that, for most of us, won't get written in a book.
Tell your story to someone and save a piece of history.
Taking off from Julie's story, I would like to make a place here where people can tell their story and save a "piece of history". If you have a fond rembrance of country life, be it about Mom, Dad, a horse, cow, tractor, gathering, branding harvesting, hunting, etc. email it to me and I will post it. I doesn't have to be professionally written, can be as short as a paragraph (for example, see Panhandle Poet's comment here)or as long as it takes to tell the story, but please contribute and help us "save a piece of history" and have a good time doing it.
I've been saving all the articles I've posted about ranching and country living. They will be transferred to disc and will be added to my official papers at the NMSU library. I will do the same with these stories.
Cowgirl Sass And Savvy
By Julie Carter
For whatever reason, the fall season always makes me nostalgic.
I find my thoughts often wander to memories of this time of year in a place far away and a time long ago on a high mountain ranch where summer ended abruptly, usually just after Labor Day.
It was a big outfit by mountain-ranch standards that pastured 4,000 yearlings from spring until fall. The yearlings arrived small, waspy, and left fat and sassy.
Mental images re-main of a long line of cattle trucks waiting their turn at the loading chute, dust boiling high above the pens as the cattle milled, and the profile of a cowboy horseback looking like a picture postcard with the rising sun behind him and the dust forming a filter of light around him.
The sounds of the banging of the scale gate as each bunch passed through to be weighed for the final tally, a cowboy hollering at each bunch as he drove them down the alley and the deafening sound of cattle bawling that never stopped until the last truck pulled away.
It wasn't history at the time. It was life. The stories told by my dad and granddad back then were their history. It was about life lived in a different era. An era when they still rode horses to a one-room school house, an era when babies were birthed at home and maybe the country doctor got there, but usually not.
It was a time when owning a pair of shoes was almost a sign of wealth and a dime might mean the difference between eating or not.
Back then, a cowboy wasn't an icon for what had been. He was what he was. Later he became that which is memorialized in stories, in books and movies.
We in the West have a history that is a chapter about the immigration and emancipation of this country and yet a story unto itself for there is nothing else like it.
The best tell-it-like-it-was stories are from the old guy sitting under the shade of his hat watching what he can no longer do. He will tell you stories of cow herds so big you couldn't recognize the cowboy on the other side. He recalls horses that bucked, horses that could run like the wind and horses that died in the line of duty.
He will detail cattle markets of that day and speak of a day's wages that wouldn't buy a cup of coffee in today's world. He will recall droughts, floods, and winters of record-breaking cold and snow. He will share stories about great friends, fine men of character and heartbreaking losses.
He remembers the time before there were fences and cattle that ran on ranges the size of three counties. He watched the West be surveyed with a wheel that delivered an accuracy that still astounds men today. He was entertained with music and song by the campfire, or better yet, at the good-eats of an ice cream social.
Now when I write my stories of my childhood, my daughter tells me, "Mom I have learned more about your life from those stories than I ever knew before."
Case and point. It is important to listen to the stories from those that went before us. It is equally as important to take the time to tell our stories. They are part of history that, for most of us, won't get written in a book.
Tell your story to someone and save a piece of history.
Taking off from Julie's story, I would like to make a place here where people can tell their story and save a "piece of history". If you have a fond rembrance of country life, be it about Mom, Dad, a horse, cow, tractor, gathering, branding harvesting, hunting, etc. email it to me and I will post it. I doesn't have to be professionally written, can be as short as a paragraph (for example, see Panhandle Poet's comment here)or as long as it takes to tell the story, but please contribute and help us "save a piece of history" and have a good time doing it.
I've been saving all the articles I've posted about ranching and country living. They will be transferred to disc and will be added to my official papers at the NMSU library. I will do the same with these stories.
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